Damn.
I thought when it came to energy, I would be at odds with the leader of the Conservative Party but I agree with John Rustad on the question of nuclear energy. We need to start talking about it. I would actually argue we need to invest in building nuclear power plants right now.
I would also suggest we invest in geothermal energy. We have a tremendous potential source along the Rocky Mountain Trench.
Indeed, there was work being done on this geothermal in and around Valemount. But the entire trench could serve as an energy source which can be used for load leveling as it does not require sunshine nor wind. New Zealand generates a fair amount of its energy from geothermal.
We are going to need energy to keep the economy running. Ideally, it should be electrical and the most effective way to achieve this is through nuclear and geothermal power plants. Both are reliable and proven technologies.
Canada has had nuclear power plants generating electricity for decades in Ontario. At one point, Canada was exporting safe nuclear power plants around the world.
Of course, as soon as someone suggests using nuclear power, people talk about Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.
There are a number of reasons why these three incidences couldn’t happen with Canadian built reactors. Nor are the accidents they encountered likely to happen again. Realistically, a tidal wave is not going to hit some place like Prince George.
But more importantly, we need the energy. If all the developments proposed for the north come online, the demand would be somewhere around 20 gigawatts. That would be 20 Site C dams.
We don’t have the capacity to build such dams nor do we have the rivers which would be required without destroying much of the province.
The only choice we have is alternative energy sources. Or not powering our economy which is not tenable.
As we move to an economic structure not based on the burning of fossil fuels, we need to find ways to tap into the potential in the province for generating electricity.
Run-of-the-river type projects might work for small loads but the big energy demands of industry are going to require larger sources.
Solar and wind are great but require massive storage capacity – either in the form of batteries (and there are companies working on such technology) or by having sources such as hydroelectric, geothermal, and nuclear power generation which can provide power when they can’t.
We have the capacity to have a much cleaner, greener energy mix.
So, let’s start discussing nuclear power as an option to hold us over until the scientists and engineers working on fusion power plants have a working system. Then maybe we can have a truly clean source of energy.
Todd Whitcombe is a professor of chemistry at the University of Northern British Columbia.
